Resurrecting Old Stories

Once upon a time you wrote a story you truly
loved. It was the first plot that kept you awake at night or stole away your
thoughts when you should have been working on other things. The story haunted
you and it might even have been the reason you took up writing for the very
first time.

And so you wrote it...

But for whatever reasons, it did not reach
the potential that it could have reached. You were just not yet ready to tell
this story. Well, now may be the time to try again.

First there is a major fallacy that many
writers -- even writers who have been working at it for a while -- need to get
out of their system. A story is not wasted or destroyed just because the author
wasn't at a writing level to do it justice the first time she tried. If nothing
else, this first attempt can be considered a first draft, or an outline. And by
having written the material at the time when the story called to her, she has
probably saved it from being completely lost.

But should she try to rework it now?

What To Save

There are several levels at which you can
save an older story. This works even if you have not actually finished the
work. Chances are that you stopped because something was not quite right.
You can apply this set of ideas to a work that is finished or unfinished, as
well as pieces of any length.

These are just quick guidelines, and how you
actually apply them will depend on your methods and the work itself.

1.Taking only the idea

This is really just writing a new story.
However, it may be that the basic idea of the story is the heart of what you
wanted to tell (a woman learns her beloved grandfather is a wanted war
criminal), while the story that you came out with fell flat and devoid of the
power you had felt in the concept.

If you wrote the story at the age of
fourteen, chances are that you will have learned far more about the art of
writing by twenty-five, and can tell a fuller, more imaginative and emotional
tale. This, of course, is not always true -- but if you have grown as a writer,
rewriting the idea might give you something worthwhile.

2.
Save the characters

Did those characters live in your head until
you could hear them speak, see them smirk, and understand their fears? And even
so, the story just didn't work out right?

Perhaps it's the characters you want to drag
out of the dead plot and into a new, exciting life. If that is the case, look
at the characters not only as individuals, but in pairings and groups.
Sometimes a character is defined not only by his own attributes, but also by his
actions and reactions with others. The character you truly love may need that
obnoxious sidekick who often annoys him and you. Moving him alone into a new
story could make the character very dull.

Oh, and when thinking of new surroundings --
that is, a new plot -- don't just limit yourself to sequel-like ideas. Move him
around in time and situation. How would that daring highwayman do on the
streets of LA? Or maybe you could drop him in the far future on another world?
It might be that a character you love seems a cliché in one setting, but becomes
something exciting and different in another one. Try adapting him outside the
box you originally built.

3.
Saving the story line

Idea and characters are great, but the plot
dragged and fizzled? Line editing it is not going to make it come alive,
either? Then try sitting down with the story and writing an outline from it.
Take the old story and list out the number of chapters or (roughly at least) the
number of scenes. Now write one paragraph of description for each of those
chapters/scenes. Just one paragraph that briefly tells you what happened.

Or do a far more detailed outline. I've used
my Phase Outline (http://fmwriters.com/Visionback/Issue%2015/phase.htm)
for this type of work, and it is very helpful. The level of outline you use
depends entirely on how much detail you want to save from the original plot and
prose.

In both cases, once you have what you want,
ruthlessly go in and cut, add and rework the outline before you start writing
again. After all, you don't want to tell the story exactly the same, right?

4.
Cast of Thousands

When I was younger I had the 'cast of
thousands' problem. I wanted dozens of great characters in every book, and I
would populate the pages with people who might only have a line or two in the
entire book -- but they were my perfect characters and the book obviously
wouldn't be the same without them.

Well, that was true, at least.

If you realize you have far too many
characters and no one is going to keep them straight, including you, then it is
time to eliminate and combine. Make a list of all of them. Then go through the
list and cut out as many as you can. When you rewrite, take anything essential
that they did and give it over to another character. Do the same with their
good lines. How much work this is -- edit or rewrite -- depends on how many
characters you eliminate and how easy it is to incorporate their essence into
some other character.

5.
POV Change

Do you need a POV change? This is one you
need to test out. Take a couple key scenes and rework them into the proposed new
POV. Do they work better?

Going from first to third is going to open up
the novel to more potential storyline and descriptive possibilities, but it will
lose the immediacy of the first person narrative. Going the opposite way --
third person to first person -- will obviously have the opposite effect.

Don't use second person (you) except for
experimental work -- and don't expect it to sell. There are very few of
examples of this POV type, and there's a reason for it. Most people can't write
it well, and fewer people like to read it.

I have a personal dislike for most omniscient
POV work. It is, quite often, the default for our early works because we have
no idea what POV is when we start out. While omniscient can be handled well,
that isn't often the case in a writer's earliest works.

Fixing this one is a bit more difficult.
First is the decision of what POV you want. Even if you stick with omniscient
you are likely still going to have to tighten up the head-hopping. If you
decide to go with first or third, you are going to have to decide which
character(s) to tie the story to. You will need to go through every line and
make certain that what is presented is something the character can actually know
or experience. Be especially watchful for those moments when your MC
unexpectedly turns psychic and knows what others are thinking and feeling.

6.
Love everything but the prose?

This version is very easy to do, but in some
ways the hardest to make better. If you feel that a simple edit of the prose is
going to wipe out or change more than it will keep, then try this method of
resurrection.

First print it out. Read it and make
whatever notes you want about plot changes, etc. in the margins. Don't worry
about editing the prose itself. Get it done, set it aside for a day or two.

Then sit down, read one page of the print
out. Put it down. Start typing.

The story will be very fresh and preserved as
you go straight from read to write. You will also be instantly aware of the bad
prose mistakes in the original and mostly avoid them. You'll catch the others
in a line edit later. The really great part of this method is that you can grab
any good lines that you still love and copy them straight over.

However, the problem is that you might get so
caught up in the story that you miss the problems that need to be fixed. Set
yourself an easy pace for doing the work and don't try to rush through it. That
leads to carelessness. Always remember that writing isn't a race.

Don't give up on the stories that called to
you and that you still harbor a secret love for and would like to see in print.
The story is there. Chances are you are a better writer now, as well. And even
if you still don't get it quite right this time around, you have come closer to
creating the story you wanted. No work is a waste. We learn from every story
we write -- and rewrite.

Don't give up on them. Don't throw them
away. The stories are still there -- it's just going to take a lot more work to
bring it out. You have not wasted those dreams, and you might find that the joy
you had in that story is still alive.